ELEVATING USERS TO CO-CREATORS: DefectDojo Taps Abbey Kirkland to Build the Roadmap Hand-in-Hand with the Community

[Austin, TX] — March 17, 2026 — DefectDojo, the world’s leading platform for scalable security, unified vulnerability management and DevSecOps, today announced the appointment of Abbey Kirkland as Customer Success Manager.

In traditional SaaS, the relationship between vendor and user is transactional: you buy the software, you use the software. DefectDojo breaks that model. By bringing on Kirkland—whose background at Loop Robots and Rubrik centers on high-touch advocacy—the company is doubling down on what makes DefectDojo unique.

Development Without Silos

DefectDojo became the industry standard because it was built by the community, for the community. Kirkland’s mandate is to scale that "hacker spirit" into the enterprise. She is tasked with building a high-bandwidth feedback loop that elevates customers from passive consumers to active Co-Creators.

The "Hand-in-Hand" Strategy:

• The Product Bridge: Kirkland will serve as the translator between daily user workflows and the engineering team, ensuring the roadmap reflects reality, not assumptions.
• Proactive Evolution: Shifting the focus from "how do I fix this?" to "how do we build this better together?"
• Community-Led Innovation: Ensuring that as DefectDojo expands globally, the product remains grounded in the actual needs of the people using it.

"We don't want customers who just consume our software; we want partners who help us refine it. The security landscape changes too fast for vendors to guess what comes next," said Abbey Kirkland, Customer Success Manager at DefectDojo. "My goal is to ensure that every DefectDojo customer feels like a co-creator of the platform. We are building this hand-in-hand to solve the problems that actually keep CISOs up at night."

The Human Element of Code

While competitors invest in AI chatbots to distance themselves from customers, DefectDojo is investing in leadership that brings them closer. Kirkland’s appointment is a commitment to the belief that the best software is built through conversation, connection, and deep understanding of the user's daily battle.

"Abbey understands that DefectDojo isn't just a tool people buy; it's a mission they join," said Greg Anderson, CEO of DefectDojo. "She is here to ensure that as we grow, we never stop listening. With Abbey on board, we are doubling down on the philosophy that has always driven us: the community builds the best code."

About DefectDojo

DefectDojo is the open source unified vulnerability management platform that remediates at the speed of AI, enabling security teams to focus on fixing the most critical vulnerabilities first. Parse any security finding, aggregate across your stack, prioritize what matters, and report on your security posture and compliance.